I’ve got to say that this is a good movie… Oh, wait. What I meant to say is that Dinner for Schmucks would be a good movie if it was still 1993, but sadly its 2010, and this movie is just plain stupid now. I think director Jay Roach’s sense of humor is stuck in the 90’s, and it’s a shame because I was a fan of his back in the day. Of course that was back during the actual 90’s. I don’t want you to think I’m being a snob. I still enjoy sophomoric comedies, but that doesn’t mean I like them to be mindless.

In Dinner for Schmucks, Tim (Paul Rudd) is finally getting that big promotion. The only downside is his boss likes to hold these special dinners where his employees have to find the biggest idiots they can and bring them to dinner. Of course the idiots are told it’s a dinner for winners, and that they are there to showcase their unique talents. At first Tim is reluctant to participate, but when he literally runs into the prefect idiot on the street, he quickly finds out that getting to the dinner is going to be a challenge in itself. Barry (Steve Carell) is an IRS employee that moonlights as a taxidermist, and uses his talents on dead field mice to create dioramas that are re-creations of famous works of art. He is also recently separated from his wife, who was cheating on him with one of his fellow IRS workers. Therman (Zack Galifianakis), an equally eccentric character, has the ability to control the minds of others. You don’t have to be a psychic to know that Therman will also be attending the “Dinner for Extraordinary People.”

Here’s the thing. Not only is Dinner for Schmucks a one trick pony, but it also continues the unfortunate trend that is bad Steve Carell movies, which is mind boggling in itself, because I like Steve Carell. But, for some reason his movies never seem to work for me. There are of course the exceptions like Anchorman and The 40 Year Old Virgin, but sadly there seems to be more Evan Almighty’s out there than the former. Even Paul Rudd can’t save this one. Both Rudd and Carell give strong performances, but at the end of the day it just comes down to a bad script. This movie is so one dimensional that I would gladly wear 3D glasses while watching it, if I thought it would help. It’s also painfully predicable. I wasn’t expecting this movie to be on the same level as Inception, but come on! At least try and hold my interest for an hour and a half. Unfortunately, the only people that are going to enjoy this dinner are the schmucks themselves.